An Update on This and That

I was hoping to share some photos of the harbour cruise from last week but I didn't have time to resize them. 

Instead I'll share a few snippets and a bit of sad news.

Two snapshots from my harbour walk. I always love to look at all the boats and yachts at the marina. 

These first two shots are for Skywatch Friday visitors.

The next photo is of a vintage dessert. This one reminds me of my late mom. Years ago when she still had a school age child at home she would make a dessert out of fruit, gelatin and whipped cream mixed in. This one has less whipped cream than she used to use because I wanted to save some as a topping.  When the jelly is half set, I diced fresh strawberries and bananas into the jelly along with whipped cream and then put it back in the refrigerator until fully set. Yummy! Though next time I will use more whipped cream mixed into the gelatin, lol.

I'm reading my 24th book for 2018. This one is by a new to me author.  

Read more about the book here if interested.
I'm enjoying the book. Nothing too taxing. This is just the right kind of reading when I'm very busy and need a small diversion.

I finally finished planting my garden. I got a late start on it due to the long winter we had.  Once the debris was cleared I amended the soil with 160 kgs of compost.  Another 180 kg of potting mix was needed for the many containers.

I've planted vegetables and flowers again.  I've noticed that it is is getting harder and harder to find the starter plants I want (petunias, geraniums and pansies) even though they are common plants.
If, and when I do find them, I might only find one or two small starter plants.  That means there is no selection when the remaining plant might not be well watered or healthy or if you want a different colour than what remains.
Sometimes you just have to suck it up.

I'm not sure why it is getting so hard to find common starter plants.  It may simply be that I arrive too late to the stores and they sell out quickly.  When I purchased the geraniums I asked the store owner if he was going to get more as they only colours were red and pink. He said he hoped so and that there shipment had just arrived that day. They were already very low on geraniums when I arrived.

Another explanation for the lack of plants may be that certain plants are no longer in fashion and so stores don't carry them like they used to.  I remember I had the same issue for the last few years and so last year I went to a large garden center hoping to have more selection. They did indeed have a huge selection but not of the plants that I want.

 I like to plant a lot of pansies. These seem particularly hard to find. This year I only got one container of purple ones.  Fortunately I had one pot of very hardy, yellow  pansies that had survived being outdoors all year even through the cold winter.

 

This year I tried starting plants from seed by purchasing a large tray.  Most of the seeds didn't sprout so I didn't use any of them. I think next year I will plant seeds again but I won't use a large tray. This way I can actually label them first so I know what I've planted.  This will only work if I can get started much earlier in the season.  It's a bit hit or miss when the last few planting seasons have arrived so late after a long winter.

Grandma Sally seems to be doing well at home. So far she has needed one tank of oxygen which the nurse was able to take to her home and administer.  Jonah (Grandma Sally's grandson) has returned home a few hours away for some much needed rest.  He was taking care of Grandma Sally's needs and visiting her every day in hospital for the past 3 months. Now that Grandma Sally is home, culture dictates that males do not enter the bedroom of the females so she has females taking care of her needs. Of course at the hospital when Jonah was visiting, Grandma Sally had staff attending to her immediate care needs.

In sad news, one of my cousins, Connie, was diagnosed with cancer about 2 weeks ago. It was at a late stage as a result of doctors not testing her when she started trying to ascertain the reason for neck issues several years ago. Finally one of her sisters accompanied her to doctors and they were given the runaround until the sister insisted that proper testing be done. This is when the cancer was diagnosed and it was already quite advanced.  Treatment began immediately commencing with some surgery on her spine. The doctors are saying she needs to be moved to palliative care soon as Connie's health is deteriorating rapidly.

My cousin is unaware that the photo below was taken by her sister and shared with me on the occasion of the birth of her great grandson in April. I share it here so you know who to pray for if you feel so led. But I will likely delete the photo soon out of respect. I can just see the love on great grandma's face and the little one in her arms is so very cute.

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